Aeroplane.



W. E. SHOULERQ AEROPLANE.

APPLICATION FILED DBO. 9, 1912.

Patented Dec. 16, 1 913.

2 SHEETSSHEET 1.

W. E. SHOULEB.

AEROPLANE.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 9, 1912.

Patented D60. 16, 1913.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

I m1 WEED WILLIAM E. SI-IOULER, 0F ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS.

AEROPLANE.

Application filed December 9, 1912.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, I/VILLIAM E. SHOULER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Rockford, in the county of WVinnebago and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Aeroplanes, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to aeroplanes of the heavier than air type, and the object is to construct an automatic balancing or stabilizing means to be applied thereto.

A further object is to provide power lifting means and also to have said stabilizing means adapted to cooperate with the lift ing means for lifting the craft, when so desired.

A further object is to construct the several propelling devices, raising, balancing and forward propulsion, so that they run continuously and simultaneously, thereby forming a safety guard in the case of accident to any one of the said devices.

A further object is to provide a positive automatic control for the operation of the stabilizing means.

In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 is a plan view of an aeroplane embodying my invention, a portion of the rear top wing being broken away. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the aeroplane. Fig. 3 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view. through the center of the aeroplane. Fig. 4 is an enlarged section on the line 44 of Fig. 1. Fig. 5 shows the stabilizing means automatically actuated. Fig. 6 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view of the control of the forward moving propeller. Fig. 7 is a plan section on the line 7-7 of Fig. 4, the propeller turned a quarter turn. Fig. 8 is a diagrammatic view of the manual control of the stabilizing means, for use when said means are to act as raising means.

The fuselage or frame of the machine may be of a suitable construction, being here shown as of the bi-plane type, composed of upper and lower side wings 1 and 2 respectively, forward and upper and lower wings 3, rear upper and lower wings 5, and the landing carriage 6.

Suitably supported within the frame of the aeroplane are two independent motors 8 and 9. Continuously driven by motor 8 are four shafts 10, 11,12 and 13, extending to the outer edge of each lower wing. These shafts drive independent stabilizing means Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 16,1913.

Serial No. 735,756.

located at the outer edge of each wing, and s1nce these stabilizin means are of duplicate construction, I Wlll explain the construct1on and operation in detail of the rear stabilizing means only.

A vertical shaft 14 is journaled in the rim of the rear lower wing 5 and cross-bar 15, and has a bevel gear16 at its lower end meshing-wvith a bevel gear 17 secured to shaft'll. A sleeve 18 is mounted on the shaft 14, and two oscillating propeller blades 19 are pivotally secured to said sleeve by the bolt 20 which extends through sleeve 18 and shaft 14, thereby fixedly securing the three together. A slidable sleeve 21 is mounted 011 shaft 14 and has a key 22 slidable in a slot in said shaft. Links 23 form a connection between the sleeve 21 and propeller blades so that when the sleeve is raised said blades are oscillated, each in a different direction as shown in Fig. 5.

A frame 24 supported by cross-bars 25 forms the support for a slidable carriage 26. Pivotally supported by carriage 26 and 27, is the rocking balancer 28, having one end of its bottom inclined as at 29 and having depending arms 30 and 81 fixedly carried at opposite ends of the balancer. A ball or weight 32 is carried within the balancer and is adapted when the balancer is in an inoperative position, to remain at the end as shown in Fig. 4. Two screw-worms, right and left, 33 and 34 respectively, are fixedly secured to shaft 11 and are adapted to form power moving means for the carriage 26. Suitable means may be employed to transform the reciprocatory movement of the carriage 26 to vertical movement of the sleeve 21, said means as here shown comprising a bell-crank having an arm 35 engaging carriage 26 and an arm 36 having a connection with a rocking lever 37 which has a yoked end 88 engaging the grooved end 39 of the sleeve 21.

A bell-crank lever 40 is pivotally supported by the frame 24 and one arm adapted to engage the bottom of the balancer 28 and the other arm forming a connection for a guy-wire 41 for actuating the lever. A spring 42 holds the lever in an inoperative position. I

The stabilizing means carried by the front wings are designated as 43, and those carried by the side wings as 44 and 45.

A hand lever 46 is provided near the operators seat 47 and has a connection with the bell-crank levers 40 of each of the stabilizing means, by the guy-wire 41 leading to the rear means, wires 48 and 49 to stabilizing means 44' and 45 respectively, and wire 50 to the forward means 43. As shown in the diagrammatic Fig. 8, the actuation of lever 46 will operate all of the levers 40 in a like manner.

The motor 9 is adapted to revolve the vertical propeller 51, which propeller is of a similar construction to propeller 19 above described. The shaft 52 driven by motor 9 carries the right and left hand screw worms 53 and 54 respectively. Sleeve 55 is fixedly secured to shaft 52 and carries the oscillating blades 51. Sleeve 56*is slidablc on the shaft 52, driven thereby and has a link connection with blades 51. The slida/ble carriage 57 carries a rocking-bar58which has two depending arms 59 and 60. adapted to engage the worms 53 and 54 respectively, the bar 58 being held inoperative by the spring 61. A link 62 forms a connection between the carriage 57 and sleeve 56. A bell-crank lever 63 has one arm thereof adapted to contact one end of bar 58, and its other arm connected by link 64, to a lever 65 at the operatorsseat. A spring 66 holds the lever 63 inoperative. The motor 9 is also adapted to revolve a horizontal propeller 67 placed above the. aeroplane and acting as a lifting means. The construction and operation of said propeller is exactly similar to the vertical propeller 51, above described, the propeller 67 being controlled bylever 68 having connection with the hand lever 69 at the operators seat.

. An elevating plane 70 is carried at the front of the aeroplane and a rudder 71 at the rear thereof, these being of common construction and being essential, as the aeroplane when so desired can be propelled forwardly and raised in the same'manner as in the common type of bi-plane now m use.

The operation ofthe aeroplane and its stabilizing means is as follows: With the aeroplane resting on the ground and both engines running, thereby revolving all of the propellers simultaneously, there are two methods of rising into the air. The first method is that as employed in the common type of aeroplane with"forward propelling devices. By actuating hand lever 65, bellcrank 63 rocks the bar 58 which causes the arm 60 to be engaged'in the worm 54 that is constantly driven, thereby carrying carriage 57 forward. The sleeve 56 is also carried forward through link 62 and oscillates the blades 51 so that the blades cut the air and become effective being then similar to the common rigid propeller, thus propelling the aeroplane forward and raising it by the common method at the will of the operator. Upon releasing lever 65, the spring 61 will rock the bar 58 and cause arm 59 to enter the worm 53, thereby sliding the carriage back to its normal position and rendering the blades inefl'ective.

While the aeroplane is in mid-air, if it should tip to any one side or quarterly beyond a predetermined point or danger angle, the stabilizing means or propellers at that low portion of the aeroplane would become automatically effective and exert a lifting force, thereby raising the low portion of the aeroplane until an equilibrium is attained, when said means will become automatically ineffective.

In Fig. 5 I have shown the aeroplane having been tipped beyond its danger point and the blades 19 being oscillated. In common practice the danger angle would be greater than the angle at which the plane is here shown. As the plane is thus tipped the ball 32 will roll to the opposite end of the balancer 28, thereby rocking it and lowering arm 31 into thepath of the worm 34. Since arm30 is thereby raised, and shaft 11 turns in a clockwise direction as viewed from the right hand-side of the figure, the worm 34 will slide the carriage 26 as in Fig. 5, until arm 31 reaches the end of the worm 34 when it will bear against the end of said worm thereby holding the parts in that position. The sliding of carriage 26 will actuate the bell-crank 3536, rocker arm 37 and sleeve 21, thereby oscillating the blades 19. The blades although continuously driven arenormally held flat and rotate with little resistance, but being thus oscillated they become effective and exert a lifting force thereby raising that portion of the plane. When the safety level has been attained, the bottom 29 of the balancer 28. will cause the ball 32 to roll back to its original position, thereby lowering arm 30 into the worm 33 and sliding the carriage to its original position and rendering the blades ineffective.

It will be seen that tipping in the opposite direction to that shown, the ball 32 will re main in its inoperative position as shown in Fig. 4 and' not affect the stabilizing mechanism as the mechanism on the opposite end of the aeroplane will be then operated. In tipping in a quarterly direction the two lower propellers will be actuated.

The second method .of raising the aeroplane is by the actuation of hand levers 69 and 46. Lever 69 oscillates the propeller blades 67 in a similar manner to that of the vertical propeller 51. means of guy-wires 41, 48, 49, 50, rocks t e balancers at their respective ends and causes all of the'stabilizing propellers to become operative. The wire 41, for instance,will

actuate the bell-crank 40 thereby rocking Lever 46 than h being the same as above described. On releasing the lever 46, the machine being horizontal, the balls in the balancers will roll back to the center and the stabilizing means will become inefl'ective. The aeroplane when in mid-air, can then be propelled forward in the above described manner. Thelarge propeller 67 can also be used to good advantage when alighting, serving to leave the aeroplane down slowly with the end propellers acting as stabilizing means.

I claim as my invention:

1. An air -craft comprising, a motor, a plurality of horizontal propellers located at points distant from the center of the craft, adapted to be constantly driven by the motor and the blades of the propellers being oscillatory thereon, and independent means for each propeller having connect-ion with the blades of each propeller and adapted to automatically oscillate its blades when that portion of the craft at which it is located is tipped downward to a predetermined angle, and means driven by the power means and cooperating with said independent means to oscillate the blades and hold them in their oscillated position.

2. In an air craft, a motor power, a propeller having blades oscillatory thereon, and the propeller adapted to be continuously driven by said motor power with the blades substantially parallel with the plane of rotation, and means for oscillating said blades at an angle to said plane, said means being operated by said motor power;

3. An air craft comprising, balancing means, a propeller having oscillatory blades, an operable connection between the blades and balancing means, the balancing means adapted to be actuated automatically by the tipping of the craft to different angles, and a motor powerhaving an operable connection cooperating with said balancing means to positively actuate said means when they have been automatically tipped to an angle and thus positively oscillate said blades, and to maintain said blades positively oscillated during said angled position of said balancing means.

4. In an air craft, the combination with a propeller having oscillatory blades, rockable means adapted to be rocked when the craft is tipped to an angle, said rockable means having a connection with said oscillatory blades, and a means adapted to be continuously driven, said rockable means when the craft is tipped to a predetermined angle adapted to be actuated by said continuously driven means to oscillate said blades.

5. In an air craft, the combination with a propeller having oscillatory blades, a rockable means including a member movable from one side to the other side of the pivot of said member to rock said means and adapted to be so moved by the tipping of the craft to an angle, means for oscillating said blades and having connection with said rockable means, and power driven means having connection with said blade oscillating means and adapted to oscillate the blades when said rockable means have been rocked by movement of the craft, to oscillate the blades.

6. In an air craft, the combination with a motor, of a plurality ofhorizontal propellers located at points distant from the center of the craft and each having a blade movable to operative and inoperative positions, means continuously driven by said motor, and operable means having connection with said blades and adapted when that portion of the craft at which a blade is located is tipped downward to a predetermined angle, to cooperate with said continuously driven means and move the blade at said tipped portion to an operative position.

' In testimony whereof 1 have hereunto set my hand in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

IVILLIAM E. Sl-IOULER.

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